We had planned to have an all-homemade Christmas. We had a glitch in our finances. I had been setting money aside so we would have cash to spend, and I had saved up quite a bit. But then I realized that I was being overpaid. And when I did some further research, I had been overpaid for a while. We owed back to my company just about all I had saved for Christmas! So, we decided we would simply make Christmas gifts this year. I love to do that anyway!
That did not happen. There were a whole myriad of things got in the way of that. I was mad at a few individuals and mad at my life in general for a while, but then I realized that I had gotten myself all puffed up about the fact that I was having an all-homemade Christmas. Here I was helping my clients get set up with organizations that were blessing them with hundreds of dollars' worth of gifts, including gaming systems and high-end name brand clothes, and I was making gifts for my family. But that was okay, because I was doing something BETTER...I was proud. Shame on me!
ANYWAY....my husband got a Christmas bonus. He NEVER gets a Christmas bonus, or any other bonus! His company just does not do this! We talked about what bill we were going to put it toward and then just decided, you know what? We don't have time to do what we wanted to do homemade because of several different things that have happened, and we were given this money, so we took it last night and bought Christmas for our family. It wasn't much when you figure how many folks we were buying for, but Chris and I chose gifts that were perfect for each individual, and that was really, really fun.
I am so proud of us (but a better sort of "proud"--not an "in your face" proud--not a "Oh YEAH?" proud, more of a sigh of relief proud). We haven't spent this little on Christmas since our kids were tiny and we were so poor. Now we have the income but we have too much outgo that I feel like we are poorer now than we were back when we were below poverty level. But we went out last night with a small budget and a big family and we NAILED IT.
So, I am actually really looking forward to tomorrow. I am looking forward to watching my family open gifts that are simple but perfectly suited for each one. I am looking forward to a shortened church service in the morning where we will have a Christmas Carol hymn sing and a brief message and then come back home. I am looking forward to having almost my whole family around my table (Mozy remains in South Korea), eating a simple meal of ham and mashed potatoes and salad and sourdough rolls and green bean casserole and a Birthday Cake for Jesus. I am looking forward to not having to take any crisis calls from my clients. I am looking forward to just BE-ing. It's been so long since I have just deliberately breathed and lived and paid attention to my loved ones.
My expectation for tomorrow is to not let anything rattle me. I choose to have a peaceful, joy-filled day.
Merry Christmas, friends!
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